


God Will Be Cut

by Milieu



Series: Urban Decay [3]
Category: Bandom, Black Veil Brides
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Car Chases, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Survival Horror, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-06-03 17:56:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6620581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieu/pseuds/Milieu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's as if the universe itself is mocking him.</p>
<p>The universe should have known better than to get between Jinxx and his boys when they needed him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Somewhere on I-80, 1:39 AM CT, 85 mph

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from this quote from Kill Bill vol. 1: "If, on your journey, you should encounter God... God will be cut."

To: Jake  
Sent at 1:39 AM  
_Hey man, how are you holding up? Just got to a place with actual signal, shit's crazy out here._

From: Jake  
Received at 1:45 AM  
 _holy shit man you have no idea how glad i am to hear from you!!!_

From: Jake  
Received at 1:46 AM  
_things arent great, but ashleys here_

From: Jake  
Received at 1:47 AM  
_hes been in a bad way since he got here, a lot of bad shit has happened_

From: Jake  
Received at 1:53 AM  
_i don't want to try to explain it like this_

To: Jake  
Sent at 1:55 AM  
_Don't worry about it then, I'm on my way and I should be out to Yosemite in a few days. I probably won't be able to take the fastest route, and there were some other delays._

From: Jake  
Received at 1:57 AM  
_like what? or do i not want to know?_

From: Jake  
Received at 2:01 AM  
 _jinxx?_

To: Jake  
Sent at 2:03 AM  
_Gonna be honest here: I just hijacked a car and am being chased by the police. I'm impressed the speech-to-text thing is working so well so far._

From: Jake  
Received at 2:04 AM  
_WHAT_

From: Jake  
Received at 2:05 AM  
_JIXNX_

From: Jake  
Received at 2:05 AM  
_*JINXX_

From: Jake  
Received at 2:06 AM  
 _WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OVER THERE_

From: Jake  
Received at 2:07 AM  
_hello???_

From: Jake  
Received at 2:08 AM  
 _dude please answer_

To: Jake  
Sent at 2:14 AM  
_I'm about to go off-road, so we're going to have to pick this back up later._

From: Jake  
Received at 2:16 AM  
_holy fucking shit_


	2. Just outside Omaha, Nebraska, two days earlier

This right here was some bullshit.

Jinxx scowled at the haphazard barrier in the middle of the road. This far out? Really? It would take at least a day of non-stop driving on the interstate for anyone to get to the California border from here, and there was no way the wind had been strong enough to blow any sort of residue from the Cloud this far from the coast. From the last news reports he'd seen before leaving his family's home a day or so ago, the weather had actually been unusually still with how long the haze over the coastal cities had taken to dissipate.

In short: there was no fucking way that trying to restrict the flow of traffic in  _Nebraska_ of all places was doing anything more than causing people like him unnecessary irritation.

Hysteria was beginning to creep across the country by now, though. Refugees from all along the west coast swarming inland, some kind of health crisis with the people affected by the Cloud that nobody could seem to get solid, objective details on. Even vaguer news about what was happening on the other side of the Pacific, though the bits and pieces that came through gave the idea that it was more or less the same. Vague news and vaguer reasons for why this had happened in the first place, promises and threats so flimsy that it would have been better not to make them.

Violence. Lots of violence, lots of things he'd seen on internet news feeds that he couldn't quite scrub from his brain. A few people had told him point-blank that he was out of his mind to be heading towards California when everyone who could get their shit together was fleeing.

What they didn't understand - what nobody had ever seemed to grasp quite as much as he did when he tried to explain it - was that some people were worth disregarding common sense.

The last real news he'd gotten had been several weeks ago now, and Jinxx wasn't going to rest easy until he knew without a doubt that every single member of his family, blood or not, was safe and secure. It was going to take more than a roadblock in the middle of flyover country to stop him from making sure of that.

He just needed to regroup, figure out what was going on in this area, and come up with a new plan. That meant backtracking a few miles to Omaha, grabbing a hotel room for the night, and trying to find a news station that was relaying information of a slightly higher quality than "mass hysteria". The last part was easier said than done; most of the stations out in the coastal area were defunct by now, and the ones that were still up and running were increasingly isolated. The stations from further in didn't have first-hand information and weren't exactly helping at not spreading panic. The relevant details that he did get made it clear that most of the mid-west was about one snippy comment away from instituting martial law, and the roadblocks were just the first step in that direction. It just drove home what Jinxx already knew: he needed to get out of here as soon as possible.

He'd have felt better if he had any real idea of what was waiting for him in California. Contact with the entire west coast over the last several weeks had been sporadic at best, and Jinxx's phone service had decided to be particularly shitty in that regard, along with the fact that it was consistently impossible for him to get a decent signal at most points outside of the major cities right now. He'd tried email in lieu of phone contact, but a good portion of the coast no longer had public electricity or internet either.

That left him with what he'd had before setting out: Jake trying to hash out a plan, vague updates on where Ashley and CC were and what they were doing, and a whole lot of nothing from Andy.

It was getting harder and harder to not lose sleep over that.

\---

Jinxx woke up early, checked out of the hotel, and stepped outside to find that all of the rumors about martial law had decided to go ahead and become reality at some point during the night, presumably just to fuck with him specifically.

Whatever the actual cause, the roadblocks had been solidified, there were more police milling about than he'd thought actually existed in the state of Nebraska, and there was an increasingly irate crowd of people in the street asking questions that nobody had the answer to.

That the situation was unstable was glaringly obvious to anyone who took a look. Traffic wouldn't be moving, not within the city limits. Jinxx made one brief survey of the immediate area, sighed and threw a few mental middle fingers skyward, and dug his bags out of his car. If he was getting anywhere today, he was going to have to work with what he had.

Shouldering his bags, he steeled himself and pushed into the part of the crowded street that looked to be the least likely starting point for a riot. He grabbed the nearest person, a nervous-looking college-aged girl, by the shoulder. "Do you know what's going on here?"

She jumped at his touch and spun to face him, but relaxed marginally after a moment to process what he'd asked. "I don't really know," she admitted, rubbing her arms anxiously. "I heard that a big group of people from further west came in last night. Some of them are sick."

Well that was just fucking great, wasn't it? "Sick how?"

The girl lifted one shoulder in a helpless half-shrug. "I've only heard rumors, but it's from... you know, the weapon. The Cloud." She leaned in closer to him and lowered her voice. "I've heard bad things about it, real bad things. It's like something out of a horror movie. I don't want to believe it."

Jinxx nodded, more out of a desire to get her to go on than agreement. What he'd heard hadn't been good either, though. "So what's with all the police now?"

The girl glanced over at the nearest group of uniformed cops. "They're not letting anybody in or out of the city limits for now. I heard they've got the sick people quarantined somewhere, but they haven't said anything about what they'll do with them or how long this is going to last. Nobody knows if it's contagious or how it spreads if it is."

Fucking  _great_. 

Goddamn, Jinxx hated being stuck in flyover country.

"I don't suppose they've made any arrangements for those of us who don't live here."

She shook her head. "If you've got a hotel room, you should probably just go back and wait."

Jinxx sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to fend off an oncoming stress headache. "Do they really think that can last?"

The girl offered him a thin-lipped, humorless smile. "I don't think they're expecting any kind of order to last very long now. They're just holding on as long as possible."

\---

He wasn't the first one to head back into the hotel; the front desk was already fending off a growing line of people demanding rooms, help, answers. Instead of joining in, Jinxx decided to park it on one of the couches in the lobby, trying to map out some kind of plan of action in his head despite the rising noise and atmosphere of panic.

He wasn't the first one to do that either, it turned out. There was a group of haggard-looking people huddled on the couch across from him, some talking quietly among themselves, a couple dozing, more than one just gazing off into the middle distance at nothing in particular. Jinxx's attention kept being drawn back them as he tried to puzzle out a solution. He had a sneaking suspicion that these people were from the group whose arrival had caused so much disruption. Whatever the mysterious sickness was, they'd apparently brought it with them...

 ...Which meant that they were probably his best chance to find out what was really going on out on the coast.

He sat watching for a few minutes, wondering how to best approach them. Much as he was trying to, it was impossible to ignore the tension both inside and out on the streets, and nobody was going to react well to a complete stranger demanding information from them without warning.

Like most things so far, though, Jinxx's extended musing on that point turned out to be pointless; as he was sitting there debating what to do, one of the guys who had been staring off into space seemed to become aware of Jinxx's eyes on him and glanced over. His brow furrowed for a moment, undoubtedly wondering why some weirdo was staring at him, and then he raised his eyebrows in a silent question. Jinxx took in the dark shadows under his eyes and how they contrasted with the pallor of his skin, the clothes he clearly hadn't changed for several days, the way one fist stayed clenched on his leg like he could grasp onto the last shreds of his composure.

It was the kind of sight Jinxx was probably going to have to get used to.

"Hey," he said softly, as if speaking to a cornered animal, "are you guys in from Cali?"

The man inhaled sharply through his nose and nodded jerkily. A couple of the other people on the couch looked at him and then at Jinxx, warily.

"We haven't done anything wrong," the man murmured.

"I didn't say you had." The man's frown deepened, but when no further negative reaction was forthcoming, Jinxx continued. "I was wondering if you could tell me what's happening out that way. I'm trying to get there myself."

The man stared at Jinxx like he'd just said something in an incomprehensible alien language. Jinxx met his gaze steadily. The other people on the couch had moved away as much as they could, clearly trying to act like the exchange was not taking place.

The man looked away. The fist on his leg clenched tighter for a moment, knuckles going white, and then abruptly relaxed. He closed his eyes for several more moments, as if deeply contemplating something.

Slowly, he nodded and opened his eyes to look at Jinxx again.

"Who is it for you?" He asked softly.

Jinxx blinked at him, not expecting that. He took a moment to consider before replying. "My brothers."

"Family is important," the man said softly, more to himself than to Jinxx. He jerkily thrust his hand out towards Jinxx, who instinctively recoiled before he realized the man was offering a handshake. Jinxx gave his hand a perfunctory shake; the guy had sweaty palms.

"My name is Peter Brocklehurst," the man said.

"Jeremy Ferguson." As expected, there was no recognition in Peter Brocklehurst's eyes. He didn't look like a metalhead, anyway. If Jinxx had to guess, he'd say the guy looked like an R&B fan. Maybe jazz. Under better circumstances, he'd have asked rather than just guessing.

Peter leaned in closer, close enough to confirm to Jinxx that he definitely hadn't showered in a few days. "Listen," he said, voice low, "I'm sure you've heard about the things that have happened out west since the Cloud. The sickness."

Jinxx nodded, waiting for him to continue.

Peter glanced towards the front desk, where an argument was steadily growing louder. No one over there looked in the direction of Jinxx or the other couch people. Peter turned back to Jinxx, lowering his voice further anyway. "Some of our group - our family members - got sick. From the Cloud. We've been doing our best to take care of them, but..."

"The quarantine," Jinxx suggested.

"The quarantine," Peter agreed. "They... they don't understand. It's not contagious. It's not- I've heard people calling it a plague." He was trembling now, hands balled into fists on his knees. "It's not contagious, and what they do- you'd do the same. They're still just people. Scared, sick, and just trying to survive, like the rest of us."

Jinxx kept his face carefully neutral, trying not to show how troubling Peter's words were quickly becoming. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

Peter looked Jinxx in the eyes and made a face that Jinxx assumed was supposed to be a smile. It wasn't a particularly nice smile. "Oh, you will. You want to head out to Cali, you're going to understand real quick."

Sensing that the conversation was headed somewhere he really didn't care to explore, Jinxx changed gears. "I need to find a way out of here first. They've got all the roads out blocked off now."

"I've seen the barricades. They look pretty flimsy, if you ask me."

"Maybe so, but they've also got armed police everywhere."

"Sure. But there's not an endless supply of police."

Jinxx stared a Peter for a moment. This time, Peter met his gaze unflinchingly.

Finally, Jinxx broke the silence. "Who is it for you?"

Peter managed to get a bit closer to an actual smile this time. "My daughter. Haley. She's fourteen."

"Quarantined."

"Yes."

"And you intend to do something about it."

Peter lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug, the casualness of the gesture belying the intensity of his eyes. "You want to get to your family. I want to get to mine. Maybe we can help each other out." He reached for the bag at his feet and unzipped it as quietly as possible. Jinxx watched with raised eyebrows until he saw what Peter was pulling out and wasn't able to completely keep the alarm off his face.

Peter kept his hand in the bag as though he was rooting around for something, not letting anyone but Jinxx get a view of the nine-millimeter pistol within. He grinned, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Just a precaution. Or persuasion, however you want to think of it."

"Whatever you're planning to do with that, it's not going to work." Jinxx kept his voice low and steady, in spite of every instinct telling him that Peter Brocklehurst had gone off the deep end and that he shouldn't be anywhere near this guy.

"I don't want to hurt anyone," Peter insisted. "I just need to get to my little girl." He swallowed thickly. "And you... you need a distraction."

Jinxx studied him for a long moment, hard. There were a lot of ways to analyze Peter Brocklehurst, it turned out. Maybe he was desperate. Maybe he'd already given up. Maybe he really was just crazy.

But he just might be Jinxx's only chance to get on the road again before everything came crashing down around him.

"Alright," he said finally. "What  _are_ you planning to do?"

\---

Quietly and under cover of darkness the next night. That's how things started out.

Jinxx let Peter lead the way to the hospital where the quarantined refugees were being held (or at least the most consistent information anybody could get insisted so). They went on foot, not speaking to each other or anyone else. The only noise was their footsteps and the occasional rustle of fabric as Jinxx adjusted the bags slung over his shoulder.

Peter's plan, as it turned out, was very simple. Jinxx was inclined to call it too simple, but he couldn't afford to be that critical, given the circumstances.

There was the hospital, where Peter's daughter and the others were quarantined. There was the police roadblock nearby. There were police cars in the road, not all of them attended.

There was Peter, and his gun.

And there was Jinxx, who was wondering if maybe participating in track and field as a teenager would have improved his life any, or at least lengthened it a little considering what he was about to do.

They split up at the corner of the road near the hospital's front entrance; Peter turned towards the building, and Jinxx kept going, sticking close to the building's shadow and trying to be as invisible as possible. He thought belatedly that maybe he should have wished Peter good luck.

He heard conversation drifting over from back at the hospital entrance, a startled shout, and then gunfire, and he couldn't afford to think anymore.

Jinxx zeroed in on the nearest unattended car and broke into a sprint, heedless of the yelling behind him or in front of him. Everything came in split-second flashes as an adrenaline rush like none he had ever experienced before took over.

Gunshots. Screams. Peter yelling his daughter's name. Someone grabbing Jinxx's arm. Planting his foot, turning, shoulder into the sternum, up and over, and he was running again, thanks judo classes and boredom.

Car. Door unlocked, keys in the ignition. Maybe his luck hadn't run out after all.

Jinxx threw his bags into the passenger seat and revved the engine before he even had the driver's side door shut, slamming the gas pedal all the way to the floor as soon as the engine roared to life. He saw a figure in the rear-view mirror, the cop he had downed, roll out of the way just in time as Jinxx pulled the car around, and he allowed himself a breath of relief that he didn't have to add vehicular manslaughter to the rapidly-growing list of things he had never wanted to experience.

He hit the wooden traffic barricade head-on, and it splintered, sending chunks flying up over the windshield and probably scraping the front end of the car all to hell, but he was through. Jinxx let out a whoop, startling himself into laughter as he hit the road, tires screeching. Behind him, some aspiring employee of the month started up their lights and siren and took off in hot pursuit.

In the passenger seat, Jinxx's phone vibrated to let him know that it had finally caught some signal and decided to deliver some messages that had been waiting for who knows how long. Jinxx grabbed it and spared a glance, finding another of Jake's inquiries about his whereabouts. Glancing between the road and the phone and trying not to swerve, he activated the talk-to-text.

"Hey man, how are you holding up? Just got to a place with actual signal, shit's crazy out here."

A few minutes later, the phone vibrated again.  _holy shit man you have no idea how glad i am to hear from you!!!_

_things arent great, but ashleys here_

_hes been in a bad way since he got here, a lot of bad shit has happened_

_i don't want to try to explain it like this_

Bad news. He didn't have time to think about it too much.

A crack that might have been more gunfire sounded behind him. Whatever it was, it missed.

"Don't worry about it then, I'm on my way and I should be out to Yosemite in a few days. I probably won't be able to take the fastest route, and there were some other delays."

_like what? or do i not want to know?_

Two cars still in pursuit. He must have pissed them off, he figured, or maybe they suspected he had escaped from the quarantine. Didn't really matter.

_jinxx?_

Jinxx let out a sigh that might have also been a near-hysterical laugh.

How did everything get this fucked up?

"Gonna be honest here: I just hijacked a car and am being chased by the police. I'm impressed the speech-to-text thing is working so well so far."

He couldn't afford to keep glancing down at his phone and was thus forced to ignore the incoming barrage of Jake's questions and disbelief. He glanced to the side, where the road sloped away into dirt and grass, and made a snap decision.

"I'm about to go off-road, so we're going to have to pick this back up later."

He jerked the wheel to the side, white-knuckling it as the car swerved onto uneven terrain and fighting to keep control of it at the speed he was going. He was somewhat gratified to see the police cars behind him slam on their brakes.

Jinxx peeled off through the grass and into the inky blackness of night, speeding towards a destination that he dreaded as much as he anticipated it.


End file.
